MEMOIR: Wagga-born actor Lex Marinos has penned a memoir which is set to be released in July this year. Picture: Ross Coffey

WAGGA-born actor Lex Marinos has penned a memoir Blood and Circuses about his childhood and more than three decades in front of the camera.

The book is expected to be released in July.

According to publisher Allen and Unwin, the book tells the story of “a young Greek Australian boy, whose family ran a cafe in Wagga in the ’50s and who dreamt of making his life in theatre a dream that came to pass by accident and design.”

Mr Marinos is probably best known for playing Bruno in Kingswood Country opposite Ted Bullpitt from 1979 to 1984 but he has also acted in classic Australian television dramas Water Rats and A Country Practice.

More recently, Mr Marinos has appeared on ABC television’s The Slap.

Mr Marinos, 65, spoke to the Advertiser briefly about the book but said readers would have to wait until its mid-year release.

A spokeswoman for Allen and Unwin said the book contrasted “Mr Marinos’s experience of being a Greek boy at a time when being a ‘dago’ meant suffering schoolyard abuse with his wildly successful career”.

Leaving Wagga in 1963, Mr Marinos studied drama at the University of New South Wales before starring and directing a number of television shows in the ’80s and early ’90s a contribution which saw him awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

“More than anything else it is a vivid account (of his life), beautifully written by a much-loved Australian,” an Allen and Unwin spokeswoman said.